Last weekend, a dozen students who are spending their summer working to elect Democrats as part of Mark Strama's Campaign Academy made their way to Corpus Christi for the Texas Democratic Convention.
If you attended the convention, you likely noticed them in their matching Campaign Academy shirts following closely behind Rep. Strama. On their Campaign Academy blog, the students summarized the weekend.
This past weekend, about half of the Campaign Academy ventured to the Texas Democratic Party State Convention in Corpus Christi. We were looking forward to funny hats, inspiring speeches and awkward dancing, and the convention did not disappoint!
Representative Strama introduced us to many legendary figures in Texas politics, such as Bill White, Linda Chavez-Thompson, Boyd Richie, Senfronia Thompson, Glen Maxey, and Molly Beth Malcolm, who kindly shared their experiences and words of wisdom with us.
We had the opportunity of attending various caucuses, including ones representing Mexican- Americans, LGBT interests, and the Asian-American community, which shed light on the diversity and inclusiveness of the Democratic Party ....
The convention energized us for the months ahead, during which we will be working hard to turn Texas blue! We would like to sincerely thank everyone who made it possible for us to attend this convention. We learned so much and had a great time, too!
The Campaign Academy, who I've been working with since early June, also created a video documenting the weekend.
In a year where the conventional wisdom seems to be that Democrats are suffering from an enthusiasm gap, we are proud to report that's not a problem here in Texas, where over 20 high school and college students are devoting their summer vacations to working to elect Democrats up and down the ballot.
Want to know what your favorite State Rep had for breakfast? Looking for pictures of that county judge doing the chicken dance? This weekend, be sure to follow tweets from everyone at the TDP State Convention to stay up to date on all convention happenings, from points of order to dolphin shows!
All tweets and photos from the convention will be aggregated live here, so even if you can't make the convention you can still stay up to date. If you're on Twitter can follow along by saving the #TDPSC hashtag in your smartphone's Twitter application!
If you're headed to the Convention, be sure to stop by the official TDP State Convention Tweet-Up on Friday from 12-1 PM at the American Bank Center in Room 104. Representative Aaron Peña, everyone's favorite twittering politician, will be emceeing the event -- in 140 characters or less!
Be sure to RSVP here and don't forget to use the #TDPSC hashtag in all your tweets and TwitPics. See you in Corpus!
(Good info for this weekend from the TDP. - promoted by Phillip Martin)
Stay up-to-date with the latest news about the TDP State Convention on Facebook or on Twitter. If you're on Twitter, use the #TDPSC hashtag.
This week, Texas Democrats from across the state are preparing to travel to Corpus Christi for the 2010 State Convention. Throughout the week, we'll be highlighting information about our state convention, and taking a look back at our 10-week "Meet the Statewides" campaign to introduce our statewide ticket to voters across Texas.
We'd also like to highlight video of our Communications Director, Kirsten Gray, speaking on Fox 7 Austin's "Good Day" morning program last week and answering questions about what we can expect from this week's Texas Democratic Party State Convention.
Ed. note: This is part of today's ongoing look back at the TDP Convention.
It has been almost a year and a half since Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton declared their candidacies for president. In that time, supporters of both Obama and Clinton became extremely passionate and attached to their respective candidate.
The passion that may have come to an apex on the night of March 4 was still evident this past weekend at the Texas Democratic Convention in Austin.
For the Clinton delegates, whose candidate announced she would concede on Thursday and made her concession speech during the convention itself, there were a lot of mixed emotions.
Certainly, though she had begun the race as the absolute front-runner and failed, there is little doubt her candidacy accomplished something. It brought universal health care to the forefront of the domestic debate, broke down many barriers that had been placed before women candidates and helped create one of the largest instances of participation and activism in Democratic Party history.
The party building benefits of the Obama-Clinton primary will be felt in Texas and across the nation for years to come.
As I walked around the convention, no matter how many Clinton buttons and t-shirts I saw (and there were a lot considering she had dropped out of the race), there was still a sense of unity.
Many Clinton delegates I spoke with (including myself) looked, perhaps naively, at the State Convention as the last time Democrats would be divided.
"Right now, we're still Clinton and Obama. Pretty soon, and I hope really soon, we'll all just be Democrats again," a Clinton delegate from Nueces County told me.
Even the most hardcore Clinton supporters, like Guillermo Mirna of El Paso, who I wrote about on Friday when he interrupted the Mexican American Democrats caucus with his cries of "No surrender!" recognized the need for Democrats to unite.
"We are Democrats," Mirna said on Friday. "We need to elect a Democrat, but we also need to have a voice that will be heard," alluding to his hope that the Obama campaign will do more to reach out to Hispanic voters.
The only Clinton delegate I met all weekend who emphatically said they would not vote for Barack Obama was Mike Kupka of Denison, who I also wrote about this weekend.
But even Kupka, who you probably noticed carrying around a sign that read (and I'm not making this up) "Small Town, Gun-Toting, Religious Democrat, Bitter About Obama," could envision a scenario where he could vote for our nominee.
"I will vote for him if he puts Hillary on the ticket," Kupka said. "If he doesn't, I'm a pure down-ballot Democrat."
The good news is Kupka is the only person I met who was eager to talk about their opposition to Obama. The bad news is that there are certainly others.
But there is a lot of time between June and November. I am confident that Barack Obama will do what he needs to do to bring close to 100% of the Clinton supporters into his column this November.
Anyone who was on the convention floor when loud chants of "United We Stand" emerged from smaller chants of "Obama! Obama!" and "Hillary! Hillary!" can't be too worried.
After all, we're Democrats and while we might have our disagreements we will surely unite for November. This year, with so much riding on this election at every level of government, our complete unity has never been so important.
What is your story of party unity (or division) from last weekend's convention?
I'm looking forwarding to reading the blogging that speaks to how the dueling P.A. format for the Senate District caucuses sucks.
Because I'm there.
And it does.
**edited to correct a case error caused by "smart typing" on an iPhone during the Convention.
No word yet if Barack is going to be attending the Texas convention (though I have heard rumor that Clinton may be coming Saturday). This press announcement from the Obama campaign seems to indicate that Virginia Governor Tim Kaine will be speaking for him on Friday night.
CHICAGO - Virginia Governor and Obama campaign National Co-Chair Tim Kaine will travel to Austin this weekend to speak to the Texas Democratic Convention on behalf of Senator Barack Obama.
On March 4th, Obama claimed an important delegate victory in Texas that was marked by record-setting turn-out in the state's primary and caucuses.
"I look forward to traveling to Texas this weekend and seeing firsthand the grassroots movement for change that has inspired men and women of all ages all across the Lone Star State to get involved in the political process," said Governor Kaine. "It is time for all of us to come together and focus our efforts on winning in November. Voters in Texas and across the country have the opportunity to unite behind Senator Obama and his vision for bringing people together and his effort to move this country forward."
WHO: Virginia Governor and Obama campaign National Co-Chair Tim Kaine
WHAT: Texas Democratic Convention
WHERE: Austin Convention Center
500 E. Cesar Chavez
Austin, Texas
Hey all you SD14 and SD25 Clinton and Obama delegates that want to get in front of some folks: You are more than welcome to come to the LFT meetup on Tuesday. Like at DFT meetup, we'll do a quick 'why vote for me' spiel, among other things.
Meet your fellow Democrats, and buy them a drink, why don't ya?
Tuesday,May 20, 7pm at El Mercado (1302 S 1st St, Austin 78704) join us for a few margaritas, a taco or two, and great political discussion with friends. This month's agenda includes:
Carlos Barrera. Latinos For Texas PAC will present the soon-to-be next Hispanic Judge to sit on a Travis County Court of Law, Carlos Barrera, with a donation to help him take the bench in County Court #8. LFT PAC will also be taking contributions to futher our mission.
Meet the National Delegate Candidates. There's an army of activists in SD-14 and SD-25, and we all want to do more for the Democrats. Meet those running at the State Convention for the SDEC, committees, national delegate, and even elector, so you can make an informed choice.
Travis County Democratic Party Coordinated Campaign. Working on the TCDP Coordinated Campaign is the #1 thing activists can do locally because we aren't just helping to elect down-ballot Democrats, we're also giving our state-wide candidates the margins they need to help put them into office. Meet Kate Murrow, Field Director for Rep. Valinda Bolton
The 2008 Texas Democratic Party Chair's Advisory Committee on the Platform is having its first meeting next Thursday, May 8th at 10:00am at the AFL-CIO at 1106 Lavaca in Austin. State Representative Garnet Coleman, one of our House Democratic Caucus leaders and Chair of the policy-oriented progressive legislative Study Group, is the chair of the committee again this year.
Boyd Richie explained the purpose of the advisory committee in an email to the committee members, "this committee is not an official committee of the Convention. However, because it is virtually impossible to write a coherent and thoughtful platform from scratch on a Saturday at the convention, in years past this Advisory Committee has proven helpful in preparing a working draft that has resulted in platforms vastly superior to the Republicans!"
The official party platform will be drafted and approved by the Platform Committee members who will be elected by the senatorial district caucuses at the state convention. The advisory committee is tasked to draft a working document that the elected Platform Committee uses as a starting point at the convention.
I am one of the members of the advisory committee this year. I live in Austin in SD 14. If any Democrats in Austin or elsewhere would like to make suggestions for the 2008 platform, please send me your ideas by email to scottcobb99@gmail.com, call me at 512-689-1544 or put them in the comments. I would like to see as much grassroots and netroots input as possible into the platform drafting process.
You can also come to the advisory committee meeting yourself next Thursday. In the past when I have been on the committee, anyone who comes to the meetings could participate in the discussions, although if it comes down to a vote on any issue, it could be that only the appointed committee members get to vote.
Tom Blackwell has all the TDP platforms going back to 1996 on his website, so if you are interested in seeing how the platform has changed over the years, visit Tom's site. Thanks for doing that, Tom.
KT built this list and this google document - I'm just going to be updating it today while he's at the convention. Additionally, both Michael Hurta, David Mauro, and others here at BOR will be helping provide results throughout the day. This is a true team effort, so keep checking back throughout the day for more. -- Phillip
There are "national" Superdelegates from Texas, and "state" Superdelegates from Texas. Here's the big difference:
The "national" Superdelegates are the ones who get to cast individual votes at the national convention. We've been tracking them here in Texas for some time -- you can, too, by going to our TX Superdelegate Watch page.
The "state" Superdelegates is the same premise as the national system, only at the state level. There are 351 "state Superdelegates" from Texas, made up of the SDEC membership from each County, and the County Chairs from each County. In other words, if you are on the SDEC or serve as a County Chair, you automatically get to go to the State Convention, where you can cast a vote for either candidate.
There are going to be 7,315 delegates allocated to the State Convention via the process that is occuring over the weekend for the state convention.
Therefore, about 4.5% of the total delegates to the State Convention are "Superdelegates" -- 351 of the total 7,649 delegates (NOW I've done the math right, and thanks to someone for correcting me).
We've created a "state Superdelegate" tracking page as well, which we will be updating throughout the course of the weekend as best we can. The link is below:
On that page, we've got the complete list of the "state Superdelegates" along with which candidate they support, and a note about how we know who they are supporting. As I said, we hope to update/build that list more over the course of the weekend -- but it's an entirely people-powered document, so if you are on that list (or know how someone voted on that list this weekend) let us know and/or give us contact information to verify it.
(SD24 is my home district where I was elected as a national convention delegate in 2004. Mike Cable actually expressed interest in writing for BOR months ago and he may be coming on board for the summer. Never though we'd have some Abilene area coverage now did ya? - promoted by Karl-Thomas Musselman)
This was our first convention as well. Both Camille and I became delegates specifically to work for Glen Maxey, so we definitely experienced some disappointment, but we also came back fired up to win in 06 and 08.
In the early afternoon on Thursday, I was on the road from the Anson Summer School Program back to Abilene, eager to head out for Fort Worth. I already was proudly wearing my Maxey lapel sticker. My niece Jenny was with me, and she immediately asked about the sticker. I tried to explain, as best I could to a seven-year-old, why we were going and how we wanted Glen to win. Jenny got a very serious look on her, and asked “What are you going to do if he loses?” I told her that her Aunt Camille and I would be sad for a little while, but we’d get over it. She still looked serious, and said "Uncle Mike, you know people do lose sometimes, right?"
Yes, Jenny, I know. We were sad for a while, but now we’re over it. I’ve already sent out important emails, worked on our county party website and blog, and started planning grassroots outreach for our Democratic Party 4th of July picnic. And I finally got around to writing this brief piece on our convention experience.
